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Successful B2B Operators Spend 40% of Marketing Budget on Content

B2B operators have been busy refining their content marketing strategy this year. As they see the improved ROI from their focused effort on content, the vast majority of B2B companies will expand their use of the format in 2018. Here’s a preview of what to expect, based on the B2B Content Marketing 2018 report from the Content Marketing Institute and its partners.

Marketers are most likely to use the following content formats to relay information to prospects and clients:

Social media posts (excluding video) 94%

Case studies 73%

Video (pre-produced) 72%

Ebooks/white papers 71%

Infographics 65%

Illustrations/photos 56%

The most successful content marketers use 7 formats to share information while the least successful use only 4. Despite the rise in popularity of video, successful content marketers say books/white papers (62%), case studies (47%), and social media posts are the more effective tools for them.

In addition to creating content, marketers also must consider the best ways to disseminate the information. The Content Marketing report indicates that releasing information through multiple channels is a hallmark of the most successful B2B operators. These businesses use 5 formats on average: email, social media, blogs, in-person events, webinars/webcasts. Print magazines (24%) and digital magazines (21%) are also used.

B2B enterprises (80%) acknowledge that building audiences for their products and services is a key objective for their content marketing programs. Twenty percent of surveyed businesses say their efforts are very successful and 53% rate themselves as moderately successful. With over 38% of businesses planning to increase their content marketing spending, an opportunity may be available for digital media services providers. About 50% of businesses rely on one internal person to manage the content marketing chore. And, 56% outsource at least part of the effort.

With many of these internal staff members likely feeling the strain of developing and managing content marketing, they may be open to proposals from outside providers. Specifically, they may be willing to hire providers who have expertise in specific formats like video production.

Kathy is the Vice President of Research for SalesFuel. She holds a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Vermont and oversees a staff of researchers, writers and content providers for SalesFuel. Previously, she was co-owner of several small businesses in the health care services sector.